Saturday, May 18, 2013

Your smartphone is destroying your thinking and memory

Dr Hozefa A Bhinderwala, psychiatrist at Saifee and Prince Aly Khan Hospital, received a call from his brother last week. "He said, 'You are the doctor, but I performed a surgery today'."

The specialist's brother was referring to having managed to get his nine-year-old son to let go off his smartphone, which he was worried had grown into "an extended limb". "As soon as my brother would get back home, his son would grab the phone and stay glued to it right until bedtime, playing games and fiddling with apps," says the psychiatrist.

This is not a lone case. Dr Sangeeta Ravat, Head of the Department of Neurology at Seth G S Medical College and KEM Hospital, says the co-relation between mild Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (significant difficulties of inattention and impulsiveness or a combination of the two) among young adults and the excessive use of gadgets has been the subject of debate at recent medical conferences.

And if the Indian smartphone user study is accurate, we have reason to worry. The survey conducted by AC Nielsen across 46 cities in September and October 2012 revealed that the number of smartphones had touched 40 million, and almost half of the users were under 25. The dramatic growth was driven by a desire 'to stay connected and have instant access to social networking sites', it said.

Although the gadgets are designed to make life easier, and the user, work-smart, experts warn that their unrelenting pings and blitzkrieg of updates can throw the brain into overdrive, affecting its cells and blunting the mind over time. Here's all that's at stake:

Declarative memory reduced

Culprit: Reminder features Declarative memory refers to data that can be consciously recalled, such as important phone numbers, date and time of important meetings, and critical dates like your birthdays that we store in our brain. "While earlier, we'd easily remember at least 10 important phone numbers by rote, today we can't recall any other than our own. Our mind is not challenged. Everything is fed in the phonebook, and under categories — family, work, miscellaneous. Sometimes, there are so many, we can't recall the face to the name and number," says Dr Ravat.

Underdeveloped human intelligence

Culprit: Absence of external stimuli Shraddha Shah, clinical psychologist with the Department of Neurology at KEM, is most concerned about the smartphone's impact on children. She discusses Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development — a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence, which deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans gradually acquire, construct and use it. Shah explains, "This mental process of awareness, perception, reasoning and judgement can only be built if the child experiences something physical, like playing with clay, blocks or a bat and ball. It isn't possible if s/he is staring into a screen and conquering angry birds." Physical activities, she adds, help build a child's motor skills (a learned sequence of movements that combine to produce a smooth, efficient action in order to master a task) that can range from cutting a paper with a scissor to running and jumping. Phones can't play a role here.

Human mind not meant to multi-task

Culprit: Multi-tasking features Dr Ravat is critical of the Internet which none of us can do without. Our increasing dependency on search engines like Google is making us poor thinkers, she argues. "Our minds are getting lazy because gadgets ensure we don't use them enough," she says.

In another interesting argument by neuro experts, the very advantage of smartphones becomes a cause for worry. Smartphones encourage you to carry out multiple tasks at once. Clifford Nass, professor of communication at Stanford University, reckons, "It is not physiologically healthy for you because (humans) are not built to do a multitude of tasks at one time. Your phone makes you feel like you have to respond, which then increases your stress and harms your cognitive thinking."

Dr Bhinderwala agrees. Multitasking, he says, lessens our ability to focus on what is relevant, and rewires the brain to make us shallow thinkers. Varied communication features (SMS, video, Whatsapp, BBM, Facebook, Twitter) available on our finger tips, makes us less responsive to the immediate environment.

Dr Sandy Chapman, chief director for the Center for Brain Health in Dallas, who has studied the effects of technology on the brain, was quoted in nbcdwf. com, saying: "It's really keeping us at this distracted level, so everything that we're thinking about tends to be quicker, less synthesised, and that's what's making us dumber."

Marriage is the bringing together by God (through some mysterious law which operates in this universe) of two souls in this vast, vast phenomenon called life in this vast stream of existence where countless millions of souls are moving in their individual planes of spiritual evolution towards the Divine. Through the Grace of God, through the Divine Will, and through the operation of certain laws that govern this universal life, two souls are brought together. That is the meaning of marriage.

JANMA BHANDHAM BEGINS at VASUKI MAHAL

AND CONTINUES FOREVER.........

MARRIAGE IS SACRED

Marriage is sacred. It is not to be treated lightly. It is not to be considered in a vulgar sense. Marriage is an alliance which is for something more than mere physical enjoyment, for something more than even the all-important purpose of the propagation of the race. The offsprings of the husband and the wife are also to be spiritual beings, because they are other souls coming into this earth-plane to work out their own evolution.

TRUE INNER MEANING OF FAMILY LIFE

Through the coming together of two souls in marriage, God means an important process to be worked out and that is the sharing of the spiritual impulse between the two.

What they have earned, what they have learned, and their spiritual potential—the husband and the wife are to share. The husband is to enrich the spiritual life of the wife and the wife is to enrich the spiritual life of the husband and both are to go hand-in-hand toward the Supreme Attainment of the Divine Consciousness.

VASUKI MAHAL WELCOMING YOUR AUGUST PRESENCE IN THE DAYS TO COME........

Vasuki Mahal is a landmark in Coimbatore’s TVS Nagar and Edayarpalayam with over a decade of its existence. Well planned wedding hall is east facing to facilitate bride/groom to make rituals by facing towards rising sun. Ideally built with spacious wedding hall and dinning halls ad-measuring 9000 sq.ft with 35,000 sq.ft internal parking space within its fenced compound.

You can reach the mandap within 500 meters on west side street of Thadagam Road at TVS Nagar bus stop.

ON OUR WEDDING

Let our love be ever our beacon star,On curvy path and terrain unknown.Let our faith be the shining torch,To show us the way on a stormy day.

Hand in hand let us walk in unison,And correct the step when need arises.Let us pray together on this anniversay day,That together we stay till our dying day.

We know we have but one witness,Who bonded us together on our wedding dayLet us together raise our hands,That bonded we remain every night and day.

A MESSAGE TO YOU

May this message be engraved in your heart and be enshrined in your thoughts!

Live with understanding and wisdom.

Understand the meaning and purpose of life.

Understand your real nature and why you are here.

Here on earth you are but a passing traveller.

Your real abode is that realm from whence you came.

Here all things are temporary.

All things pass.

Therefore seek the Eternal.

Your Real Nature is not earthly. It is spiritual and deathless.

To realize your Reality, your eternal identity is the purpose of life.

While you strive diligently for this inner experience, cultivate Ideal Relationship with this world around you. To all beings relate yourself with nobility, sympathy, kindness, love, selflessness and the desire to serve all, SERVE HUMANITY AND SEEK DIVINITY.

Compassion to all is the key to blessedness. Humility is the highest virtue.

Truthfulness is the greatest treasure.

Self-control is the supreme wealth to possess.

Egoism is the worst blemish.

Be an ideal individual.

Become a spiritually illumined soul. Thus crown your life with Wisdom, peace and blessedness. You will then become a blessing to all mankind.